A vehicle can include a side airbag along a door inside a passenger compartment. Generally, a trim piece covers the side airbag inside the passenger compartment to conceal the side airbag from an occupant of the vehicle. Various devices have been utilized to maintain the trim piece secured to a frame of the vehicle while allowing the side airbag to deploy between the trim piece and the frame.
For example, some designs use two separate latch components that mate with each other. In particular, one of the latch components is affixed with screws to the trim piece and the other one of the latch components is affixed with screws to the frame. Each of the latch components have a female fastener formed of plastic and a male fastener formed of plastic, with a strap disposed between the female and male fasteners. The male fasteners of the latch components engage to the female fasteners of the latch components to secure together the trim piece and the frame. The latch components are attached to the respective frame and the trim piece such that there is slack in each of the straps to allow the trim piece to move away from the frame when the airbag is deployed to expose the airbag. However, the female and male fasteners are not removable from the latch components, and thus are permanently affixed to the latch components.
As another example, other designs use a single latch component. The latch component is formed of molding plastic into a first end, a second end and a pair of cords securing the first and second ends to each other. As such, the first and second ends and the cords are molded together to form a single unit of the same plastic material. A fastener piece is molded to one of the first and second ends to cooperate with the other one of the first and second ends. However, the fastener piece is not removable from the molded end, and thus is permanently affixed to the latch component. The first and second ends are attached to each other, and additionally, the first end is attached to the trim piece and the second end is attached to the frame. The cords allow the first and second ends to move away from each other when the airbag is deployed to allow the trim piece to move away from the frame to expose the airbag. However, the cords can be affected by temperature fluctuations.